Freedom
by Mediancat
Summary: Willow and Faith find a mysterious portal in another universe, so do two superheroes. In the meantime, Buffy watches a DVD.


Author's Note: The idea for this fic began years ago, when a fellow fic-writer (Dona Danielle) and I were wondering: What's on at 8 PM on Tuesday nights on the WB in the Buffyverse

Disclaimer: _Buffy_ and its characters belong to Joss Whedon. _Freedom_ belongs to me, and all of its characters and concepts: Melinda Miller aka Freedom, Grayson Brand aka Grace, etc. All actors are used fictitiously, and do not actually show up in the story.

_Freedom_

Episode 4.1: _BHOC_

Melinda tries to adjust to college life and living away from home -- while also dealing with the responsibilities of tracking down North America's newest hero, the Happy Phantom. In the meantime, Kai says farewell to Arna before leaving for Baltimore. Melinda Miller/Freedom: Kristen Bell. Kathy Kelly/The Happy Phantom: Selma Blair.

X X X X X

"How far are you along?"

"Fourth Season. First without Grace and Kai."

"You're going to have to watch the _Grace_ series at some point."

"Yeah. Kind of not high on Grayson Brand right now."

"Well, the series is all about him redeeming himself for what he did during the coup. He did end up on the side of the good guys in the end."

"He shouldn't have sided with Sunset and Freelance in the first place." Buffy shook her head. "And damn Sunset. I think Mel really loved her."

"That's not necessarily over."

"Do you know something I don't, Will?"

"Very frequently. In this case, though, I'm not going to spoil things for you. I'll give you a general idea; This season is all about rebuilding: Both Melinda's personal life, now that Sunset _and_ Grace -- two of the people she trusted more than anyone -- betrayed her. It's also about rebuilding the Twelve."

"Kinda hard to call yourselves the Twelve when you're down to seven. Let's see: There's the Rhea in South America, The True Lord in Nigeria, Mr. Strong in Poland, Sandstorm in Saudi Arabia -- who am I missing?"

"Well, Totem, of course, but he's obvious since he's now running the whole show; and Barrier, the new guy from Australia. They need to come up with two heroes for Asia, one for Africa, and one for South America, since, you know, the bad guys murdered Springbok, the Gavial died, and Alchemist and La Vega had their powers stripped."

"They're gonna be one short until they can track Sunset down."

"Not tellin' you nothin'."

Buffy lauighed. "Okay. Just tell me one more thing: How the hell did I miss this?"

"It was on Tuesday nights at 8 o'clock on the WB," Willow said.

"Dawn's in trouble? Must be Tuesday," they said in unison. "Look," Buffy said. "How are things going?"

"Actually, we're in Baltimore right now -- me and Faith."

"Not you and Kennedy?"

Willow sighed. "Amiable breakup. We basically had absolutely nothing in common besides sex and the fact that we liked each other. That's enough for the short term, but we both kind of agreed that in the long term? Not so much. She stayed behind in Brazil; Giles is sending her another witch to work with."

"You'll find someone," Buffy said.

"Well, I'm having no more luck than you are."

"The Immortal was fine," Buffy said. "Nice, mindless fun, no strings -- just what I needed. Not evil, smart, funny, and good in bed -- and when we left, we left on good terms and he told me to look him up if I ever got back to Italy."

"Any chance of you coming to Baltimore? Me and Faith could use the backup. We've got a sort of portal thingie to another dimension -- not a hellmouth, exactly, but it's spitting all kinds of interesting things out. And, honestly, we could also use a buffer. Buffy the buffer We can work together, but friends? Never really."

"Sorry. Still on sabbatical Thigns go to hell, give me a call. Meantime, I've got some _Freedom _to watch."

"Talk to you later, then."

"Bye."

Willow sighed as she hung up the phone. Thankfully, the portal was kind of small; but they had no idea how to close it.

So for the moment, she and Faith were just keeping an eye on whatever came out. Not the funnest or most productive thing in the world, but it had to be done.

X X X X X

"What the hell are you doing here?" Melinda asked. She was in her uniform, so very few people would have recognized her as anything but Freedom.

Charles Grayson "Grace" Brand smiled. "I was about to ask you the same thing."

"Reports of drug shipments coming through here -- something like cocaine, only twice as addictive and ten times as cheap. You?"

"A demon."

"A what?"

Grace said, "I know how it sounds. I don't mean a potential power with a physical disfigurement; I mean an honest-to-god demon. The kind of thing you'd see on _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_."

"And you care why?"

Sighing, Grace said, "Because I'm trying to make up for what I did. And even if you never forgive me, I'm still going to do it."

"Good. Because I'm never going to."

Silence; then, "Any idea what this is?"

"A gateway of some sort, obviously. To where, I have no clue. Obviously wherever it is has both demons and a peculiarly addictive form of cocaine."

"And -- hold on. Something's coming out."

Two men with disfigured faces came out, carrying packages. One of them said, "Joe! Trouble!"

Joe laughed. "Two ordinary people. We can handle them."

They dropped their packages and charged.

Melinda used her telekinesis and levitated herself into the air, avoiding the first creature's charge.

Grace, meanwhile, was grappling with his. The creature seemed to be stronger than he was -- but didn't have his advantage. See, while Grace wasn't a power on the level of the Twelve, he did have a power: He could generate heat.

Melinda simply picked up her creature and held it. Grace's battle ended unexpectedly, as the creature -- caught fire? "Turn it off!" Melinda yelled.

"I didn;t turn it on!" he protested, as the creature turned to ashes. Then he got thoughtful. "Hold on a second."

He went to a nearby tree and broke off a branch. "Lower him, please."

The creature struggled, but of course couldn't break Melinda's telekinetic hold. "You can't be thinking what I think you're thinking."

"I'm thinking it," Grace said.

Dubiously, Melinda lowered the struggling creature. When Grace thrust the branch through its heart, the creature turned into dust.

"Damn. When you said _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, you weren't kidding.Well, now we know where the portal goes," Melinda said, looking over the packaged. "This is the cocaine I was talking about. I wish I had someone else here, but since you're here, you'll do. Obviously we need to close the portal. And since we have no idea how to do it at our end -- and it appears to be letting vampires through --"

"Well, when you ask so nicely, how can I say no?"

And they stepped through.


End file.
